Grand Étang, Bastion de Maurepas Silver gelatin photo-composite Image dimension: 35-1/2 x 8-5/16 inches (900 x 210 mm) Frame dimension: 44 x 17-5/16 inches (1120 x 440 mm) Edition of three (3). Signed & numbered 1/3. Printed: January 2008 For sale: Cnd $650. Framed / ready to hang A causeway once crossed the Grand Étang barachois, connecting the Piece de la Grave and Maurepas bastions. "During the French Regime there was a bridge leading across the pond to the docks on the Harbour. A story is told that near the close of the 1758 siege the French were attempting to smuggle huge quantities of gold on board one of their ships, on the chance of their ship escaping out of the harbour at night and heading for France. While crossing the bridge on the waterfront, the bridge collapsed and, according to tradition, the huge iron chests containing millions in gold and other treasure landed in the silt and mud in the bottom of the pond. There, as far as I am aware, they still lie. In years gone by many attempts have been made to recover these chests. It has been said that they have on several occasions been located by probing with iron bars, but every attempt to bring them to the surface has miserably failed. Divers have been employed to go down into the murky waters, but each time they have been frustrated by the fact that every time a diver reaches the chests they slip deeper into the mud with startling suddenness while the badly frightened diver scoots to the surface. Tradition says that after the gold had been lost in the pond, a man had been bound, weighted, and dropped in the pond for the purpose of guarding, and foiling any attempt at salvaging the chests. "The last attempt to retrieve this treasure was made about 1910 when the Petries tried to pump the water out of the pond. Pumps were set up on the shore and pumping operations started. While the tide in the harbour was low some progress was made in lowering the water in the pond, but with the rising tide the pond raised to its former level, the water having seeped through the stoney beach that lies between the pond and the water. "At that period of history the murdering of a man for the purpose of guarding buried treasure was an old and well-tried custom." --Mayor M.S. Huntington, History of Modern Louisbourg 1758-1958 PREV | MAIN | NEXT